Members Only Series for CE Credit HOT TOPICS for Lunchtime Seminars for Social Workers Based on a recent survey of our chapter members, we have arranged for a Friday lunch time brown bag series of nine educational programs: Metro DC Chapter Members Only Noon to 2:00 pm, beginning October 19, 2007 and extending to June, 2008.  No fee is involved in these monthly membership programs, and continuing education credits will be offered.  Programs will take place in the conference area of the NASW National Office on the 7th floor.  Members are invited to bring food with them or get sandwiches, salads, and Asian dishes at Goodies Deli on First Street next door or at Union Station's food court.  Be sure to arrive early if you plan to stop by the Deli so that you can arrive at the class on time. One-time $10 fee for Continuing Education - 2 Hours per Session  Transportation is best by Metro Redline to Union Station, First Street Exit, although there is parking at Union Station for a fee.  At the Door Registration will be required for the series on a one-time basis so that your membership in Metro Chapter can be verified. As usual, there will be a sign-in attendance requirement for each class attended. There will be an annual fee of $10 for a certificate for the Membership series, but student members need not pay the certificate fee.    Our HOT TOPICS programs for 2007-2008 include:     Friday, October 19, 2007 Shame vs Healthy Shame: The Shame-Anger Connection Our Speaker: Brock Hansen, LCSW, author of Shame and Anger: The Criticism Connection, is a clinical social worker and personal effectiveness coach with over thirty years experience in counseling individuals with a variety of problems related to shame and anger.  Educated at Johns Hopkins University and Smith College School for Social Work, he is trained in hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming, as well as cognitive therapy, and has a private practice in Washington, DC.    He is also available for telephone coaching and presentations on shame and anger and criticism, and can be contacted by email at brockhansenlcsw@aol.com.   Other articles on topics of shame and eating disorders and emotional intelligence for kids can be found on his website at www.ei4rkids.com.  He lives near his DC office with his wife of 35 years, Penelope.   Friday, November 16, 2007 How to Become a Part of the “Give an Hour” Network Give an Hour is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to develop a national network of volunteers capable of responding to both acute and chronic conditions that arise in our society. We are currently establishing a national network of mental health professionals in order to reach out to the U.S. troops and families affected by the current military conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.  We know that at least 12% of the returning soldiers will come back from Iraq with a serious mental disorder. We know that family members are also severely affected by a soldier’s experience of trauma. Indeed, we now refer to “secondary trauma” as a significant mental health consequence of war. We know that children who grow up in families where Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not treated often become severely impaired themselves. Luckily, we also know that early treatment of mental health symptoms is the best way to prevent long-term consequences.  Unfortunately, limited resources are available to provide the needed mental health care, and, while the inevitable budget debates are important and necessary for future policies, they will not help the soldier disabled today by his or her psychological demons. The conflict in Iraq gives us all the opportunity to reach out to those in need to ensure that they can continue to function as productive members of our society. As mental health professionals, we now have the opportunity, through the newly formed volunteer network “Give an Hour” to respond to this clear and obvious need. Our Speaker:   Mila Ruiz Tecala, LCSW, LICSW, LCSW-C, DCSW, Director of Recruitment for Give an Hour, is a licensed clinical social worker and a Diplomate in Clinical Social Work who is past President of the Metro D.C. Chapter of  NASW.  She  received the National Social Worker of the Year Award in 2000.  She is a national speaker and a favorite chapter presenter of programs on loss and grief, private practice, and the social worker as expert witness.  Ms. Tecala is the Chapter Representative on Disaster Response and Training and specializes in the areas of loss, grief and trauma in her private practice in Washington, DC.    FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2007 The Adoption Mystique Adopted children are treated in the literature as though they come from Mars. People isolate them as beings apart, dissociate their experience from that of non-adoptive children, and emphasize their dissimilarities over their similarities. Society fails to recognize that adoption, like divorce, is a condition extrinsic to the child. Labeling them adopted children, not children of adoption, like children of divorce, confirms the view that their differentess lies within them.     In addition to developmental obstacles, difficulties, and exigencies faced by non-adopted children, adopted children cope with questions, uncertainties, and concerns related to being adopted. Their adoptive status, not their genes, nor illegitimate birth—singularly renders them different. It alone ensures that being adopted is fundamentally unlike being non-adopted. It is frequently misinterpreted, pathologized, minimized, or denied.   Authors and researchers try to explain it with hypothetical constructs like “genealogical bewilderment,” and “the primal wound,” then reach unverifiable conclusions like “the meaning of search,” or generate speculative attachments like adoption and learning disabilities, or adoption and attention deficit disorders, then assign adoption as causal of, as in an “adopted child syndrome.” It has been difficult—even impossible –to verify the theoretical formulations empirically.  Nonetheless, biased, stigmatic, stereotypic thinking, beliefs, attitudes, and myths about adopted children proliferate, and endure.  Oddly, to be born out of wedlock is not the same as being adopted. The culture only profiles the child once the fact of his or her adoption is made known.   We will explore the cultural framework surrounding adoption policy, law and practice, and the beliefs, myths and attitudes that embody the adoption mystique.      Joanne W. Small, M.S.W is an adopted adult, adoption rights activist, author, and psychotherapist. She was executive director of Adoptees in Search (AIS) and served as the first and only adopted person on the Model Adoption Legislative Procedures and Advisory Panel. Her 30 year professional experience includes a post-adoption clinical practice, clinical supervision, in-service training and seminars, lectures, publications, and interviews with over a thousand adoptive family members. Visit her website at http://www.jwsmall.com/.   Click Here to Register Online Location: 750 First St. NE, Washington, DC 20002 - 7th Floor Conf. Room Time: Noon - 2:00PM Dates coming up in 2008:  TBD Transportation: Union Station Metro (Red Line) - 2 Blocks North of 1st St. NE Exit; Parking: Union Station ($12)